Two decades have passed since the devolution of social care policy, with key differences emerging between the UK’s four systems, but what impact have these differences had? This book presents for the first time research on the perspectives of social care policy makers on the four systems in which they operate and the ways in which they borrow from one another.

Drawing on extensive interviews with national and local policy makers across the UK, the book raises vital questions about the role of ‘standardisation’ and ‘differentiation’ in social care, concluding that when given equal capacity to reform their respective systems, the regimes in each nation may take radically different shapes.

Chapter 4 and chapter 7 are available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

“This book gives us a much-needed, systematic and comparative analysis of the four social care systems in the UK. This a book that scholars of social care have long awaited.” Mary Daly, University of Oxford
“Intellectually engaging, insightful and accessible, the book draws on a wide range of conceptual frameworks and theoretical perspectives to provide an invaluable analysis of adult social care across the UK.” Gerald Wistow, London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Catherine Needham is Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the University of Birmingham.

Patrick Hall is PhD Researcher at the Health Service Management Centre at the University of Birmingham.